Hi everyone, I felt with such an important iconic species as the tiger—the largest cat in the world—I wanted to tell you more about the tiger meeting I just attended (see my last blog) in Huai Kha Khaeng, Thailand.

One disturbing fact that I learned, (and there are many), is that tigers now occupy just 7 percent of their historic range, and have 40 percent less habitat than was estimated 10 years ago.

Camera trap images from the tiger study in Huai Kha Khaeng, Thailand. Photos: Steve Winter.

At the meeting, the researchers outlined the three primary threats that face tigers. First of all, tigers are heavily hunted for their pelts and other body parts for traditional Chinese medicine, and are killed in retribution for preying on livestock or simply just out of fear when they move into or near human settlements.

Secondly, their prey are disappearing: no food, no tigers.

And lastly, tiger habitat continues to disappear and is becoming more fragmented as land is converted for development and agriculture.

Tiger experts estimate that there are about 425,000 square miles of tiger habitat still available, but just 23 percent of this is protected. Thus, tiger conservationists have to think beyond protected areas.

Because tigers are wide-ranging creatures, the bigger the landscape the better for the cats. Panthera, WCS and others are concentrating their conservation efforts on large landscapes that have both prey and tigers—that are, or have the potential to be connected.

The meeting in Thailand went on for five days—and with all this new information I also learned how history seems to play a large part in how people view tigers. Some consider them to be a dangerous pest, wishing they would vanish, while others hold them in awe and are horrified that they are disappearing, aware that the world would be much less rich without these majestic creatures.

Saw Htun and Saw Thoo from the Myanmar program and Dr. Saksit Simcharoen from Huai Kha Khaeng talking tigers and looking at tiger print plaster casts.

Dr. George Schaller, Vice President of Panthera, began his seminal tiger study in 1963 in Kahna, India, which resulted in his groundbreaking book The Deer and the Tiger, published in 1967. Called “the bible of tiger research”, George began a revolution in wildlife biology regarding how to view predators in large landscapes and what is needed for their survival, issues that continue to be relevant to this day as human populations continue to swell.

Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, President and CEO of Panthera, began large cat studies in Huai Kha Khaeng, Thailand, in 1987, and in 1990 began country-wide tiger surveys. He was thrilled to be back at HKK and to see the progress there over the past twenty years—HKK is truly a stronghold for tigers in Thailand.

A few of the presentations at the meeting really stood out for me. In some areas, like India’s Western Ghats, tiger populations have grown exponentially over the last 20 years, with a combination of increased patrols, which reduced poaching of both tigers and their prey, and voluntary resettlement of villages out of protected areas. This very effective program, started by Dr. Ullas Karanth, director of WCS India, has shown dramatic results. Dr. Karanth, who began his long-term tiger research in Nagarahole, India in 1986, was deeply inspired by the work of George Schaller’s work in Kahna.

Nick Brickle and Beebach Wibisono, WCS tiger researchers working in Indonesia, described particularly thorny conflicts between tigers and farmers. Tigers live in forested areas that abut crop fields where farmers raise corn. Wild pigs leave the forest to feast on the corn; tigers love to eat the pigs and follow them—and when farmers put out snares to catch the pigs, they also catch other wildlife, including tigers. These tigers are caught and either killed, or authorities are called and the tiger is shipped off to a zoo. The team radio collared one of these “caught” tigers and relocated it—back to the wild. If that animal comes near human settlements again, the team will know—as it is monitoring the tiger’s movements and a team will be sent out to try to scare it back into the forest with fireworks and firecrackers. This actually happened during the workshop. Nick and Beebach received a call that the tiger was moving close to a village and the team was dispatched with pyrotechnics!

In another amazing presentation, Dale Miquelle and John Goodrich talked about the Amur tiger they study in the Russian Far East and across the border into China. In the last five years, 10,000 snares have been removed from China alone—an astounding feat.

Dr. Dale Miquelle, director of WCS Russia, with a photo of a huge Amur Tiger.

But it takes more than individual studies to save tigers. It requires international cooperation and financial support of conservation programs.

Michael Cline and Tom Kaplan (founder of Panthera), became deeply involved in conservation initiatives because of their relationship with Alan. As very successful entrepreneurs, both were drawn to Alan’s passionate ability to get things done. Alan has created protected areas in every place he’s ever done research, it is literally his “no B.S”., get-the-job-done attitude they (and I) truly admire. As savvy businessmen, these men decided to  remove the bureaucratic road blocks that can hamper the ability of large conservation organizations to react quickly and easily to new information—or crises—by creating their own programs and organization.

Sometime back, Alan was dubbed the “Indiana Jones of Zoology” by The New York Times, which is kind of funny as another good friend and a mentor of mine was once nicknamed the “Indiana Jones of Photography”—National Geographic photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols.

The bottom line is that in order to protect the natural world we live in we need greater understanding and better cooperation. Humans compete with many wild animals—creatures that can’t speak for or protect themselves,. The people that study tigers, many of whom are present at this meeting, and the people who support their research and help brainstorm innovative conservation initiatives, are giving tigers a voice—and more importantly—a chance.

Leopard caught on the second night of testing the new camera trap prototype. Notice most of his tail is missing!

August 18, 2008

My time in Africa is coming to a close, as is the summer. By the time I return to the States on Saturday I will be two days shy of working or traveling an entire month straight without a single day off. Between assignments for National Geographic, freelance work and a quick stop in London for an exhibit and meetings with editors, it has been a whirlwind. There will be a week or so to edit and then it is time for goodbyes, packing the car and heading back to the Midwest. Going back to Ohio and school will seem like a vacation, but I have a feeling that I will miss this—as soon as I get caught up on sleep I'll wish I was on the road again, headed somewhere new.

(HUAI KHA KHAENG —THAILAND) Greetings from Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand, where I’m attending the second annual Tigers Forever meeting.

My work as a photographer with National Geographic often requires collaboration with some of the world’s preeminent scientists. Attending a conference such as this gives me the opportunity to meet the scientists who study and are trying to protect tigers across their entire range, from Bhutan to China and Russia to Indonesia--scientists who tease me, wondering why I would want to sit and listen to statistical reports for 12 hours a day! 

Vene Vongphet–Tiger Project Manager from Laos giving his presentation.

Many organizations and governments are represented here: Panthera Foundation, who sponsored the meeting, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and WWF, all of whom are working in India, Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Russia and China, and the Director of Wildlife from the Government of Bhutan.

These researchers and officials have come together to share information and brainstorm about how to save tigers, in an annual review of a dynamic new initiative started in 2006 called Tigers Forever. Tigers Forever, a Panthera program in partnership with WCS uses a business model that sets goals and monitors success on the premise that tigers can be conserved and live forever if the correct measures are taken and populations are continually monitored.

Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, president and CEO of Panthera, opened the meeting, along with Colin Poole, Asia director for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In a nutshell, Panthera and WCS are working to gain more partners for Tigers Forever—government, business, and both local and international wildlife conservation groups—to link and coordinate conservation efforts across Asia’s key remaining tiger habitat. Their goal: to increase tiger numbers across key sites by an average of at least 50 percent in ten years’ time.

Initial efforts focus on stopping the slaughter that is wiping out both the cats and their food source. That includes stopping poachers who kill tigers for the lucrative Asian traditional medicine trade and for the skin trade through stepped-up patrols, better government regulation and education. Better protection of tiger habitat also protects the prey that tigers need to survive: deer, wild boar, sambar, and other species. Other efforts focus on a tiger genetic corridor, through preserving and connecting tracts of remaining habitat. The other piece in the protection puzzle is trying to mitigate conflict between humans and tigers.

With abundant prey and proper protection, tigers can quite simply eat, relax, and mate—and numbers can rebound quickly. In some areas, such as India’s Western Ghats and in the Russian Far East, they already have, while in other areas, like Sumatra, they are disappearing rapidly.

Tigers Forever teams are currently conducting surveys to estimate both prey and tiger numbers throughout Asia. It is an incredible undertaking. Seeing photographs of the range of tiger terrain blows me away. Tigers live everywhere from vertical mountain peaks to the deepest rainforests full of all the creatures you imagine would live there.

This figure shows an example of a four-block transect—the method being used to collect data to estimate tiger numbers.

View of Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary.

It was great to listen to Alan talk about his time working in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary back in the mid-1980’s. Back then, he went to bed at night listening to gunfire, even machine guns: men in the forest poaching animals.

Now the park has constant patrols. The so-called “Smart Patrols” set up roadblocks to monitor people on roads that pass next to the park for poaching and illegal logging, and they watch for wild meat being sold in restaurants and markets.

As a result, the forest is thriving. A group of us walked a few hundred feet from the research station and saw gibbons, primates and countless birds. The tiger population 20 years ago was only a handful of animals – now they think they have 75 tigers here!

But the overall picture is mixed. In Indonesia, researchers estimate that they have lost 29 tigers in one year to poaching and human animal conflict; about 150 remain.

One incredible development in this mammoth undertaking is the creation of an entirely new kind of camera trap. Alan Rabinowitz is a very good friend of mine, and we have spoken frequently over many years about the need for a new type of camera, specifically the need for a digital camera that would fire as soon as an animal crosses its path without the lag time current models have. Cameras are needed that are inexpensive enough that you could literally “mine” a landscape with them, so theft and damage by elephants and other large animals wouldn’t matter so much. Panthera and TIgers Forever has put together a team of engineers working pro bono who have created exactly this. Panthera was begun by Dr. Tom Kaplan, a dynamic and passionate visionary. He funds his conservation vision and gives some of the best names in the world the opportunity to continue their work—like Dr. Rabinowitz as President and Dr. George Schaller as Vice President. Very impressive indeed.

Dr. Alan Rabinowitz talking with Dr. Saksit Simcharoen from WCS (right) whom he worked with for four years in the mid 1980’s here in Huai Kha Khaeng Thailand and Bivash Pandav WWF (center).

I use camera traps to get an intimate view of animals that are very secretive and difficult to photograph in person. Scientists use them to collect crucial data. Remote cameras provide important information about tiger populations, the abundance of their prey—and also sometimes on how many humans are passing through! But many researchers working in developing countries still have old film cameras, and film has limitations. There are only 36 frames, film and processing is expensive, and color film doesn’t work well in low-light situations. And high humidity—like that in the jungle—can make the film stick to itself.

Demonstrating the camera trap prototype.

Tiger caught on the first night of testing the new camera trap prototype.

Overall, these old camera traps lose more than 40 percent of possible image “captures”. These new remote cameras are a GIANT leap forward, and will allow scientists to obtain much more accurate animal census data. The world of wildlife biology will be changed once these cameras come on line! I will tell you more about what happened at the meeting in the near future.

Check it all out online at: www.panthera.org and www.tigersforever.org.

Tiger experts attending the conference.